Investigation will be held to detect violations in registration of land in Haryana during 2010-16 and under what is called ‘Section 7A’ that aims at preventing mushrooming of unauthorised colonies and haphazard construction in urban belts, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday, leaving the principal Opposition party (Congress) stunned.
The surprising move that raised the hackles of the Congress comes in the wake of the BJP-JJP coalition government confirming 64,577 violations of Section 7 in registration deeds between April 2017 and August 2021.
Ever since these irregularities have come to fore, the Opposition parties have been accusing the state government of brushing this “mega registration scam” under the carpet while generating heat on the government and especially cornering deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, who holds the revenue department portfolio.
In every assembly session held in the past one year, the Opposition has been highlighting the ‘scam’, causing discomfort in the treasury benches.
The BJP had come to power for the first time in Haryana in October 2014 after dethroning the Congress and retained power in October 2019 assembly polls with the support of Jannayak Janta Party (JJP).
Now, the fresh probe will also look into violations, if any, committed during the second consecutive term of nearly five years when Congress strongman Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the chief minister.
Already the state government has held investigation into the violations in question between April 2017 and August 2021 and admitted that there were irregularities.
“We are committed to firmly deal with the corruption. The testament to our anti-corruption stance is the investigation we had ordered on our own to find out the violations of land registration under Section 7A after receiving complaints,” Khattar said in the assembly while announcing investigation into the issue from 2010 to 2016.
As the Congress MLAs were on their feet questioning the rationale of this decision, the chief minister said he could order investigation from 2004 (when Congress came to power) if the Opposition continued raising hue and cry over the move announced during discussion on a clutch of calling attention notices regarding irregularities in the registration of instruments of land deeds.
Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala said tough action is being taken against the guilty officials. He said after receiving complaints in June 2020, preliminary inquiry was held and violations were observed.
Three sub-registrars and five joint sub-registrars posted in Gurugram were chargesheeted. Six FIRs were lodged against one sub-registrar and five joint sub-registrars.
According to official records placed in the assembly, on August 13, 2020, all divisional commissioners were directed to hold inquiry into violation of Section 7A. As many as 64,577 violations were detected across Haryana (21,716 in Gurugram division, 9,774 in Karnal division, 2,864 in Ambala division, 1,016 in Hisar division, 10,849 in Rohtak division, and 18,358 in Faridabad division).
“The state government has taken a serious view of complaints about registration of instruments of transfer of any property to prevent mushrooming of unauthorised colonies in state,” the deputy CM said.
Hullaballoo over Section 7A
In 2017, the BJP government had pushed a bill in the Haryana assembly that tantamount to water down Section 7A of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act.
Following reports about misuse of this amendment by real estate developers, the state government introduced another amendment and the assembly passed the bill in August 2020 to undo the damage being caused by the 2017 amendment.
The grant of no objection certificate (NOC) by the town and country planning department was made obligatory before registration of land in notified urban areas to prevent ill-planned and haphazard construction.
Under the 2020 amendment, the definition of notified urban area land and size of the holding was changed for which the NOC was required.
In 2017, the area was reduced from one hectare vacant land to two kanal agricultural land. The Act was further amended and notified on September 14, 2020 wherein two kanal agricultural land was substituted by one acre vacant land.
Now, the land holding for which NOC is required should be less than one acre instead of less than two kanal and the notified urban area land definition has been changed from agricultural to vacant again.
The state government had swung into action in 2020 in wake of massive violations in registrations of sale deeds without obtaining the NOCs in notified urban areas in Gurugram district.
Realising the extent of the malaise and involvement of revenue department officials in what the Opposition parties of Haryana calls “registration scam”, the state government had booked some serving and retired Gurugram revenue official for executing registration of sale deeds of properties in notified urban areas without obtaining NOCs.
Later, the ambit of inquiry into malpractices in registration of sale deeds was widened and registrations carried out from April 3, 2017 to August 13, 2021 were also probed for Section 7A violation.
The fresh inquiry was started from April 3, 2017, the day an amendment in Section 7A was notified.
